Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Hiromi - "Move" Rleased today on Telarc #jazz [Video]

On her 2011 album, Voice, Hiromi sought to capture people’s
“inner voices” and strove to create what she called a “three-dimensional
sound.” For that album, the Japanese composer/pianist assembled a trio
that included herself and two veteran players – contra-bass guitarist
Anthony Jackson (Paul Simon, The O’Jays, Steely Dan, Chick Corea) and
drummer Simon Phillips (Toto, The Who, Judas Priest, David Gilmour, Jack
Bruce). While Hiromi had played with Jackson prior to recording Voice, she had never recorded an entire album with either him or Phillips.

“I had such a great time recording with them, and we went on the road
together and that was even more fun,” she says. “As soon as we started
playing live shows, we grew up as a band. It was the biggest fun I’ve
ever had in my life musically. That’s why I wanted to do another record.
I couldn’t let it go. I wanted to do it again.”

While on the road, Hiromi started writing music for a follow-up, Move,
set for U.S. release March 5, 2013 on Telarc, a division of Concord
Music Group. (European release date is October 2, 2012.) “Because I had
been playing with Anthony and Simon for quite a bit, I just started to
understand their characteristics, and I could find a hidden gem in their
playing,” she explains. “As a composer, I really wanted to write the
songs especially for them, and I wanted to extract the unique beauty of
their playing.”

When it came time to go into the studio to record Move,
the trio was able to record quickly and effortlessly since many of the
songs had been road-tested. Recorded by GRAMMY®-winning producer and
engineer Michael Bishop at Aire Born Studios in Zionsville, Indiana, Move, like Voice, has an overriding theme, which Hiromi describes as “time in one day.”

“You wake up and go to work and then hang out,” she says. “The album is
like a soundtrack for a day.” The opening title-track begins with an
undulating piano riff that mimics the sound of a ringing alarm. “It’s
one of the most difficult pieces I’ve ever written,” says Hiromi. “I had
great musicians with me, and we worked hard on that song. In the
studios and rehearsals, we spent a lot of time to play it right. It’s
very tricky because when a song sounds difficult, it’s not fun. It has
to groove and it has to go beyond ‘this is a difficult song.’ It has to
make you groove and feel the rhythm. To reach that point really took
some time.”

The groove deepens on “Endeavor,” a tune that starts off with a funky
guitar riff that gives way to beautiful piano solos before diving back
into the funk. “It has a lot of tricks with rhythm so that when you’re
feeling the groove and shaking your head with the music, it slips
backwards,” explains Hiromi. “Then it slips back again. It has a lot of
tricks rhythmically. I really like putting these small treasures in the
songs because it’s like treasure hunting.”

The album’s centerpiece is a three-part suite divided into segments
entitled “Reality,” “Fantasy” and “In Between.” “I really like writing
suites,” says Hiromi. “I’ve done it a couple of times in the past and
it’s good for the writer to come up with a big story. I always want to
tell stories with my music. I always see visuals, and I always think
about music like a select story. I have so much fun writing these songs
that are about contrary things like your frustrations and also the fight
in yourself. It took awhile to finish and there is a main theme in each
song so by the third piece, if you listen to it carefully you will hear
the main theme. I like that kind of musical trick.”

The album comes to a close with “11:49 PM,” an 11-minute song designed
to mark the end of one day and the beginning of a new one.

“Before you go to bed, you think through what you have been through and
you think and all these emotions come out,” says Hiromi. “I think the
nighttime is the most emotional time of the day, especially when you’re
at home. I don’t know what makes people think that but it’s just the
night. People show so much more emotion and heart in that particular
time of the day. I started to write a song about it. Whenever I wrote
[‘11:49 PM’], it was always at nighttime. I went through all these
emotions.”